Hunter's Solace
by omasuoniwabanshi
Summary: The Bakumatsu. Kenshin wields his sword in Katsura's service, but when given a new and difficult task by his commander, will he succeed or fail? Is failure ever really an option for Kenshin?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin plot or characters. I'm only borrowing them for a bit.

Historical Note: As many of you know, Kenshin was part of the Ishin Shishi, the resistance movement trying to topple the Tokugawa shogunate (also known as the Bakufu) during the Meiji restoration. Katsura Kogoro led the Choshu branch of the Ishin Shishi, and was Kenshin's commander. This story is set (SPOILER ALERT) after Tomoe's death, and before Kenshin became a wanderer.

CHAPTER ONE

Kenshin waited silently outside the teahouse. It was one of those nights that couldn't decide whether it was spring or winter. Winter seemed determined to drag on and on. It crept back each night with a chill that mocked the daytime sun, causing breath to puff out in visible clouds. Kenshin had to resist the urge to stamp his feet, which felt like blocks of ice in his winter tabi.

It was a still night without so much as a breath of wind. Clouds scudded silently across the moon, and the late night reveling of the Gion district below came faintly up the hill, mingling with the muted sounds of music and laughter from the building behind him. Katsura chose the teahouse because of its seclusion, and for the tiny room with its separate garden entrance. Set apart from the rest of the establishment, the room was perfect for clandestine meetings. Kenshin manned the gate as Katsura and his lieutenant waited inside for their guest.

Time passed. The clouds moved on, leaving the moon free to spill its silvery light over the dirt path leading downhill from the teahouse. Two pinpoints of light gleamed, low to the ground, reflecting the light from the paper lanterns hung along the teahouse fence. The dog belonging to the eyes trotted past on some nocturnal mission of its own, its panting loud in the night air. Aside from the dog, nothing else moved along the path. Whoever Katsura was meeting, was late.

"Himura."

Kenshin heard the samurai's familiar heavy tread in the garden before Okuda reached him at the gate. Okuda was an older samurai, beginning to go grey at the temples. He'd been with Katsura for years. Kenshin trusted him about as much as he trusted anyone these days with Iizuka's betrayal still fresh in his memory.

"Yes?"

Okuda paused briefly at the gate.

"Wait here with Katsura, I'll be back soon," he said, eyes already scanning the path for threats. Okuda was a cautious man.

"Yes," Kenshin acknowledged with a quiet nod.

Patience was a requirement in bodyguard duty. Watching as the dark clad samurai disappeared down the hill, Kenshin allowed his senses to expand. Sight, hearing, and smell sharpened to encompass an area past the narrow confines of the garden gate. He heard Okuda's hakama clad legs brush by the weeds on either side of the path. He smelled the earthy scent of tree bark dampened by rising mist. The steady hum of music, laughter, and voices came from the teahouse at his back. All were employees and regular customers. They were harmless. Kenshin stood alone in the darkness.

It was some time later that Kenshin felt a ripple in the calm of the night. Already alert, he placed his hand on the hilt of his katana as Okuda charged uphill, breathing hard, sandals slapping against the dirt.

The samurai ran, but no one pursued. Only one pair of feet pounded up the pathway. Kenshin stepped forward to meet him at the gate. A dark patch stained the fabric of Okuda's kimono at the shoulder. It was blood.

Okuda slowed then stopped as he came alongside.

"Himura, come with me," he ordered brusquely, pushing past to enter the gate.

Judging by the size of the bloodstained tear in Okuda's kimono, his wound was shallow. With a last glance down the path, Kenshin turned and followed the larger man through the garden. Pausing only to remove their sandals on the low wooden porch, they pulled back the shoji screen door and entered.

Katsura sat before a low tray where a cup of cold green tea lay untouched before him. His keen brown eyes immediately focused on Okuda as the samurai entered.

"Report."

Okuda bowed briefly, wincing slightly as the motion pulled the kimono fabric over his wound.

"Tomahizo is gone. His house is…abandoned. It's been that way for several days, by the looks of it. The Bakufu have been and gone."

Tomahizo was a pudgy little merchant Katsura had met with a few times before. Kenshin remembered the odd blend of fear and self-importance on the merchant's face at the meetings. The man wasn't a fighter or a threat, so Kenshin hadn't wasted much attention on him. He didn't know why Katsura was meeting with the Tomahizo; he wasn't privy to Katsura's thoughts. His job was to keep his leader safe.

"Abandoned?"

So, Katsura noticed Okuda's bit of hesitation. The Ishin Shishi leader's sharp brown eyes saw and weighed everything. It was disconcerting, but it was also what made him such a good leader. It was one of the reasons why Kenshin still followed him.

Okuda swallowed. "Tomahizo wasn't there, sir. His wife and child weren't so lucky."

Katsura's eyes darkened. Kenshin saw him sink back ever so slightly as the news sunk in, but his gaze never wavered from Okuda's face.

The older samurai looked away as he spoke. "They were…tortured to death. The house was ransacked and they left a spy behind in the building opposite."

"So Tomahizo is still at large." Katsura said the words slowly, reflectively.

"Yes, I think he must be," Okuda agreed gruffly.

Kenshin despised the Bakufu with all his heart, but even they wouldn't torture a man's wife and child without reason. They'd done it to get information, information the woman obviously hadn't known. The child would have been tortured to get its mother to talk, and when that failed they would have started in on her. They probably wanted to know her husband's location. The fact that they'd ransacked the house for clues and left a spy to watch it meant that they were still looking for the merchant, and for whatever information he had that made him so valuable.

Katsura nodded at Okuda's bloodstained shoulder.

"The spy?"

"Dead," Okuda answered. He gestured apologetically at his shoulder. "He cut me a little first."

"You weren't followed back here." It wasn't a question, but more of an affirmation. Katsura relied on Okuda because he was efficient as well as trustworthy. "Get that seen to at the inn," Katsura continued.

The Ishin shishi leader rose to his feet with a measured grace that spoke of his own samurai training.

"Let's go."

Kenshin and Okuda followed as Katsura led the way out of the room, through the garden, and out the gate. The moon was once again hidden behind clouds, and the darkness and mist swallowed them up as they left the teahouse.

o-o-o

Okuda's wound festered and Katsura ordered him to bed until it healed. Informants came and went, but Katsura remained at the inn, leaving only to meet with other Ishin Shishi leaders. Kenshin had almost forgotten about the abortive meeting at the teahouse when Katsura sent for him.

The older man was standing by an open window, his eyes on the branches of a maple tree outside where sparrows flitted and twittered among the young buds and new green leaves. Katsura stood in a relaxed posture, the morning sun slipping between the wooden slats and spilling over his face and shoulders. Kenshin noticed the fine lines beginning to appear at the corners of Katsura's eyes, and the dark smudges underneath. The struggle was aging him prematurely, though there was no hint of exhaustion in his eyes as he turned to look when Kenshin came up to him.

"Himura, I have a job for you."

Kenshin nodded. It wouldn't be an assassination. Katsura had promised not to ask him to use his sword that way ever again, and he'd been true to his word, giving Kenshin only bodyguard or soldier's duties. The truth was, Kenshin felt numb for months after Tomoe's death once the storm of his first grief passed. He did as he was told mechanically, obedient but not passionate in his obedience. His youthful idealism was dead.

"I need you to go to Nagasaki, to find Tomahizo."

A mental image of the merchant's round face with its sagging cheeks and droopy eyelids came to Kenshin's mind. Tomahizo was the man who hadn't shown up at the teahouse days ago.

"I'd send Okuda," Katsura continued, "but he's feverish and you're the only other one of my men who's seen Tomahizo, at least the only one I'd trust to get him back in one piece. He has information that I need."

Katsura folded his arms and stepped away from the sunlight.

"He was seen boarding a ship bound for Nagasaki. He was disguised as a monk, though he's probably not wearing the robes anymore by now. We aren't sure if he was traveling alone. I've sent word to our safe house in Nagasaki. They're expecting you. Hopefully they'll know more when you get there."

Kenshin nodded once he was sure Katsura was finished speaking. He'd fought and killed for Katsura, but never had he been asked to retrieve someone and bring them back alive. If finding Tomahizo helped topple the Bakufu faster then he'd do it. Squelching down feelings of unease at the unfamiliar task ahead, Kenshin replied succinctly.

"I'll go pack."

He'd need food for the voyage, and money too. He bowed and turned to go, only to stop halfway out the room at Katsura's final words.

"Be careful, Himura. If our informants could find Tomahizo's trail, so can the Bakufu. They've been nosing around the docks. It's only a matter of time until they find him."

Kenshin nodded without turning and left the room.

To Be Continued…


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The voyage to Nagasaki was uneventful. Kenshin didn't like sea travel much. The endless tossing of the ship underfoot was unnerving. Thankfully, he stepped out onto the dock and gazed at the quayside from under the circular straw hat that shielded his eyes and his unusual red hair from the sun.

Nagasaki was a bustling seaport. Crowds of workers unloading cargo, passengers embarking and disembarking, the cry of gulls, creak of rope and ruffling of sails created a cacophony unlike any other. With the sun warm on his back and the scent of fish, sea, and sweaty humanity in his nostrils, Kenshin set off to the Ishin Shishi safehouse.

o-o-o

"We found him."

Kamui, leader of the Ishin Shishi cell in Nagasaki, wasted no time getting to the point once Kenshin arrived at the nondescript house set back from the street near a busy inn. Kamui was well suited to the house. Average height, average build, with a plain, unremarkable face, he was instantly forgettable.

"Where?" Kenshin could be just as brief and to the point. He found it suited him better than long conversations.

"A hot springs town inland. It's several days travel."

Kamui passed Kenshin a rolled bit of paper.

"Here's the map."

Unrolling it, Kenshin saw that Kamui was right. The onsen was in the mountains far inland from Nagasaki.

"I'll need a horse," he stated, glancing up from the map.

"Done."

Rolling the map up again, Kenshin continued. "And one for Tomahizo for the return trip."

"So it's not an assassination? Three horses then."

It was the note of bitter amusement in Kamui's voice more than the wrong number that had Kenshin look at him sharply.

The man's mouth twisted in distaste.

"Tomahizo bought a geisha out of her house contract before leaving Kyoto. She's still with him. He hired men to carry her up the mountain in a kago. It's how we found him. The carriers talked. Evidently he dotes on her."

Kenshin's hands stilled on the paper.

"I see."

The woman complicated things. If Tomahizo valued her to the extent that he'd hire men to carry her up the mountains in a traveling basket, then he'd likely not agree to go back without her. The fact that she was a geisha, used to being pampered and admired by men, would make her a liability if there were trouble. For an instant Kenshin thought of Tomoe, who'd traveled on foot with him to Otsu without a hint of complaint. His heart clenched up with the familiar ache of loss, and he willed the memory away. Keeping his face expressionless, he tucked the map into his sleeve.

"Three horses would be much appreciated, thank you," he said politely.

The bitterness dropped from Kamui's face. He stood for a moment indecisively, as if he wanted to say more. Kenshin waited patiently, but in the end Kamui simply shrugged and said, "I'll go see about the horses," and left.

The horses Kamui arranged were of good stock, strong, and suitable for a samurai. Kenshin took turns riding each and leading the other two behind him on the dirt roads leading to the interior of Kyushu Island. The rolling hills of the coast gave way to rocky mountains covered by tangy smelling pines and dense undergrowth which crowded the edges of the thoroughfare.

The horses were well trained. None of them so much as flinched when a heavy oxcart filled with straw bags of charcoal lumbered by, the ox bellowing its discontent when the driver took a switch to it, to make it go faster. Most of the other travelers were on foot, their load carried on their backs on wooden cradles, the better to stack the supplies. Kenshin had seen men carrying nearly as much as a pack animal by using the cradles.

At night Kenshin hobbled the horses and slept with his back against a tree, his sword resting on his shoulder. Each morning he woke before dawn, finishing his kata as the horses dozed, eager to be on his way again with the sunrise. Eventually he came to the town where Tomahizo was hiding.

It was built on the edge of a lake. The smell of sulfer and mud lingered through the town's main street, well past the centralized spring enclosure where invalids lay on broad boards stretched out over the pungent, bubbling mud, inhaling the fumes as they basked in the heat emanating from the hot spring.

The sound of laughter and splashing came from the lake, proof that bathers were taking advantage of the afternoon sun's fading warmth. Towels hanging from inn balconies on either side of the street gave further evidence of the popularity of the lake. Kenshin shrugged and continued on to the inn where the carriers left Tomahizo and his geisha. If things went well, he wouldn't have time for bathing in the lake. He'd collect Tomahizo and the woman and be on his way, hopefully before the Bakufu's spies learned of Tomahizo's onsen vacation.

The main street rose with the hill on which half the town was built. Tomahizo's inn was located on a side street near the hill's apex. It was getting late, a bad time to start a journey back to Nagasaki, so Kenshin searched for a stable for the horses. He'd passed by one already near the beginning of town, but the unmistakable smell of manure and hay led him to a tiny pasture on the other side of the hill where a farmer agreed to keep the horses for him.

It was a short walk back to the inn, and Kenshin made the most of it, relishing the sound of his sandals slapping against the soles of his feet as he raised small puffs of dust with each step. It hadn't rained for several days, but judging by the clouds gathering across the lake, a storm was coming. For now the sun shone down on the lake, raising sparkles on the water. Kenshin gazed at it until the triangular wood roofs of the inns obscured it from view as he turned down the side street to the inn.

Thanks to a talkative innkeeper, Kenshin knew which room Tomahizo and the geisha occupied. He secured a room down the hall from theirs, waited until the maidservant cleared away their trays of food, then entered Tomahizo's room, pulling back the shoji screen and stepping across the threshold.

Tomahizo didn't notice he wasn't the maidservant at first. He was sitting on the tatami mats, holding a cup which the woman at his side had just filled with sake from the jar in her hand. She was younger than Kenshin expected, with a delicate heart shaped face, large brown eyes, and a tiny frame that made her appear child-like. She was dressed in a bright blue kimono with an elaborate yellow obi decorated with an ornament in the shape of a crane surrounded by wisteria.

Tomahizo wore a brown silk kimono which had the unfortunate effect of making him resemble a mound of dirt. His saggy jowels shook with laughter as he reacted to something the girl said. Then he looked up, saw Kenshin and froze.

Kenshin shut the shoji screen with a snap as Tomahizo gaped.

"Katsura wants you back in Kyoto."

"Who? What? You…" Tomahizo sputtered, the sake in his cup sloshing out as he started to get to his feet.

Kenshin held a hand up, stopping him.

The geisha gave a belated shriek and set the jar down, scooting back toward the corner of the room.

"I've come to take you back," Kenshin repeated.

The merchant set his lips together and glared. "Forget it, the naval minister is too suspicious. He knows I took the plans. They're on to me. Do you know what they do to traitors? I packed a bag and left Kyoto for good, and I'm not going back. Chokichi and I are going to buy an inn and live out our lives here."

"You packed?" Kenshin repeated softly.

"Of course," Tomohizo put his cup on the mat impatiently. "Why should I buy more kimono when I had perfectly good ones at home?" He was regaining his equilibrium, anger replacing his initial surprise.

Tomahizo went home, knowing that the Bakufu were on to him, packed a bag, and left his wife and child behind to face the rage of the Bakufu agents. Yet he stopped to pick up a geisha.

The merchant held out a hand and the girl came to him. "Chokichi knew of this town, it's perfect for the two of us."

The geisha stared at Kenshin from mysterious almond eyes. It made him uncomfortable. He'd been around geisha before. Katsura often met informants in the entertainment district, where geisha fluttered around the room like brightly colored butterflies. Kenshin was always on duty at those times, and a simple hard stare, when necessary, kept the women away. The nature of his previous job and his reputation as Battousai discouraged his comrades in arms from inviting him to accompany them to Gion for socializing. Not that he would have gone even if they'd asked. He wouldn't betray Tomoe's memory that way.

"Perfect or not, if I could find it, so can the Bakufu."

Tomahizo looked shaken for a moment, then he recovered. "That won't happen."

Kenshin had to wonder what the merchant knew that gave him so much confidence. Then he realized; there was nothing. The merchant was one of those people who thought things would turn out right because they wanted them to.

The sound of horses' hooves in the street below had Kenshin across the room and at the window in a second. The view of the lake was breathtaking, but that's not what caught his attention. Kenshin's eyes were on ground level where a troop of Bakufu soldiers was galloping up the street. Turning from the window, he stared flatly at Tomahizo.

"It just did," he said.

To Be Continued…


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"They're here, we've got to go."

The merchant sat aghast on the tatami mat, the geisha draped over his shoulder.

"Move or die." Kenshin couldn't be any clearer than that.

Tomahizo finally understood that his dreams of retirement were over. Cursing, he rolled to his feet, brushing the woman off as if she were a bit of lint. He ran to the tonsu cabinet in the corner, opened it and began frantically pulling things out. A brief flash of hurt crossed the woman's face before her features smoothed out, but she stayed on the floor where the merchant pushed her.

Ignoring Tomahizo for the moment, Kenshin grabbed Chokichi by the arm and hauled her to her feet. He wasn't about to leave her to the same fate as Tomahizo's wife and child.

"Come!" He ordered, dragging the girl as he rushed toward the doorway.

There was a sound of triumph, then Tomahizo was at his side, stuffing a bag under his kimono's lapel. Kenshin led them down the hall to his room. He shut the shoji screen behind them to slow down the pursuit. It would take the soldiers time to check each room.

"Follow me."

Shoving open the window, he rolled across the sill, landing on the first floor porch roof outside. From there it was a short drop to a shed built into the side of the hill. He held his arms out, expecting the girl he'd left at the window to take his hands, but Tomahizo shoved past, grabbed his hand and landed on the roof, bounding down to the shed without looking back.

The girl came next, sitting on the sill and swinging her legs over. She caught his hands and landed on the roof. Kenshin stepped back and dropped to the shed, bending his knees to cushion the blow. Because he still held Chokichi's hands she came with him, nearly stepping on his feet as she landed. Twisting, he suspended her by her hands and lowered her to the hilltop, ignoring her gasp of surprise. There was no time for talk; they had to leave. A moment later and he was on the hill next to her.

Tomahizo was just turning around when Kenshin caught up with him. With a jerk of his head, Kenshin indicated the direction, and set off through the trees. Within minutes they were at the pasture where he'd left the horses.

Kenshin left his companions at the fence, saddled and bridled the horses, and removed them from the stable without alerting the stable keeper. For a large man, Tomahizo mounted his horse with remarkable alacrity. Kenshin boosted the girl onto the second horse and took the third one for himself. Then they were off, not back towards town but towards the mountains where there'd been a thin line on Kenshin's map showing a path.

The path was there, but it was the faintest of tracks, little more than an impression in the dirt. Since there was no other choice, that was the route they took.

Clucking softly to his horse, Kenshin led the way. The trail led between trees and around rocks, climbing ever upward. Originally it must have been an animal trail judging by the circuitous route.

The light faded and died. It became too dangerous to continue. Kenshin couldn't risk the horses breaking a leg, or careening down the mountainside so he stopped to camp for the night.

Tomahizo slid off his horse with a groan, staggering away to land on the ground in an untidy sprawl. A clinking noise from his kimono revealed that the packet he'd shoved in there at the inn contained coins.

"How did they find us?" he asked wearily.

Kenshin ignored him, dismounting and moving to assist Chokichi. She didn't say thank you, she merely flashed him a brief unfathomable look before rushing to coo over Tomahizo.

"How brave you were, it's as if the spirit of Nobunaga himself were with me," Kenshin heard her murmur.

Resisting the urge to snort at the absurdity of comparing Tomahizo to the legendary warlord, Kenshin turned his back on the couple. He saw to the horses, removing their saddles and rubbing them down with handfuls of grass. They'd ridden them hard up the mountain. A trickling stream nearby provided water. A faint mineral stench wafted off it, but the horses didn't seem to mind.

By the time Kenshin got back to Tomahizo, Chokichi was giggling with her hand over her mouth, and he appeared to be in a better mood.

Kenshin dropped a saddle blanket at Tomahizo's feet. "Rest now. We'll leave at dawn."

The merchant huffed and grabbed the blanket.

"Fine," he said, making a show of pulling the blanket around himself and the girl.

Kenshin slumped down by a tree, removing his katana from his obi and resting it against his shoulder. The last thing he saw was the girl's almond eyes gazing curiously at him over the edge of the blanket as she lay beside Tomahizo.

o-o-o

With the dawn came drizzle. It was a steady mist of moisture that left minute droplets on clothes, soaking into them inexorably. The horses didn't mind it, but Tomahizo's complaints became a steady accompaniment to the raindrops. Kenshin ignored him, while the geisha tried to soothe him with words until he snapped at her and she fell silent.

Then it began to pour. They took shelter for an hour under a cliff until the rain slacked off, then remounted and continued.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" asked Tomahizo in an aggrieved tone. He prodded his horse to bring it alongside Kenshin's.

"Would you rather go back and ask the Bakufu soldiers for directions?" Kenshin asked pointedly. Enduring hours of Tomahizo's complaints left him short on patience.

"You're supposed to be taking care of me. I'm going to get sick out here in the rain!"

Suppressing a sigh, Kenshin dug his heels into the warm flank of his steed and drew ahead.

"Katsura will hear of this!" the merchant threatened.

The geisha remained silent, following Tomahizo at a slight distance, the picture of quiet obedience. Kenshin pitied her intensely, then felt foolish for doing so. Finding a rich sponsor was a geisha's dream. It was just bad luck that the one who chose her was in trouble with the Bakufu. He shrugged it off. His job was to return Tomahizo to Katsura. The man's personal life and problems were none of his concern.

The trail rounded a boulder with tree roots wrapped around it like an octopus embracing its prey. Then the trail turned into a series of rocky steps, too steep for the horses.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Tomahizo asked testily as he noticed Kenshin reined in his horse. Chokichi stopped her horse behind Tomahizo's and waited.

Kenshin nodded toward the steps. "From now on, we walk."

"What?" Tomahizo's cheeks quivered with indignation. Then he saw where the trail led and began to curse.

He sat on his horse and swore angrily while Kenshin dismounted and removed his horse's saddle and bridle. He cursed as Kenshin helped Chokichi off her horse and tended to it as well. Tomahizo only stopped when he realized he was the last one on a horse and had to scramble off.

They left the horses to wander back down the trail and set off. At times they were more climbing than walking, and Kenshin began to be concerned about the rotund merchant, who wheezed like an old woman.

The rain began to pound down, only this time there was no shelter apart from some straggly trees. They stood as close as possible to the spindly trunks and waited it out.

"Come on," Kenshin said when the downpour abated.

Tomahizo looked up with eyes dull with fatigue but could only manage one short pungent curse as he lumbered to his feet. Chokichi stood as well. The rain had washed her makeup off, the faint traces remaining by her eyes making her look like a child playing at being a grownup, dabbling in cosmetics. She looked infinitely younger without the makeup.

Soon the trail led them to the top of the peak, then switch backed down the other side. Kenshin turned for a last look, trying to catch a glimpse of the horses. They were still there, milling around, grazing. It was the other horses that caused him concern.

Further down the mountain four other horses with soldiers atop them were racing up the trail. Chokichi noticed Kenshin's sudden stillness and turned to look as well. Her startled exclamation caught Tomahizo's attention.

"No, no! They found us?" His voice was incredulous.

"Let's go."

Tomahizo didn't need a further invitation, starting downhill without waiting for the others.

At least the threat got him going, Kenshin thought. His next concern was Chokichi, but the geisha set off without comment, pausing to glance back on occasion to be sure he followed.

He caught up to the couple and moved past them. According to the map, there was a bridge up ahead.

The bridge was a rope and wood slat construction. It crossed a steep gorge littered with rocks, a river trickling around the boulders below. On the far side a herder's shack huddled at the top of a slight incline at the base of a cliff.

"It's so far down," murmured Chokichi, peering over the edge. She clutched at the neckline of her kimono.

"Just follow me," snapped Tomahizo. He stepped onto the bridge, hands tightening on the rope handrails convulsively as the bridge swayed underfoot. Kenshin waited for the geisha to follow, then took a breath and put his foot on the first slat.

Like a ship, the bridge quivered and rolled. Kenshin kept his balance and walked upright, willing his spine straight.

Then he heard it. They all heard it, a sound like a colossal gunshot coming from the mountains. The bridge shook as if a giant had grasped it and shoved. It was an earthquake. The shaking seemed to go on forever, but Kenshin knew it was only a few seconds.

They remained frozen on the bridge, waiting until it stopped swaying from side to side, their hearts pounding.

Typically, Tomahizo was the first to regain his voice, blistering the air with curses. Chokichi merely sobbed tearlessly, gasping out her fear until the merchant turned his ire on her, demanding her silence in a burst of profanity.

Something twisted and tore inside Kenshin's heart. Ducking under Chokichi's arm, he marched forward, forcing the man to back up. He stood between Chokichi and Tomahizo, tilting his chin slightly so he could glare flatly into the merchant's eyes. Whatever Tomahizo saw there shut his mouth.

The wall of water was heralded by sound, not a sharp breaking noise like the earthquake, but a rumbling that shook the air as the quake had shaken the ground.

Shocked, Tomahizo broke away from Kenshin's stare as both turned to look. Some upstream dam had burst, releasing a torrent.

A mass of brown tumbling water rushed down the gorge in a wall. It was a tall, roiling mass rushing angrily down the gorge.

It was headed straight for the bridge.

To Be Continued.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

The sound of rushing water filled the air as the muddy wave thundered towards them. Kenshin saw, with a painful clench of his heart, that they were only half way across the bridge. Time had run out.

Tomahizo turned his back on Kenshin and Chokichi and began to run to the far side. The heavy pounding of his feet caused the bridge to sway precariously. Kenshin was after him like a shot, afraid that the man's headlong flight would cause him to trip and pitch himself over the side.

The man's self interest acted like a good luck charm. Tomahizo neither faltered nor slowed. Once Kenshin saw that he'd reach the other side safely, he glanced back.

Chokichi was still where they'd left her, bent over double in the middle of the bridge, one hand on the rope rail, the other pulling desperately at the fabric of her skirts. Her feet were tangled in the light colored under-kimono that peeped out between the folds of the azure over-kimono.

There was a crack. A tree upstream tore from its roots on the gorge edge and joined the maelstrom.

Still running, Kenshin shoved the merchant hard between the shoulder blades to send him staggering onto dry land. He was just turning back to help Chokichi when the wooden posts anchoring the bridge to his side gave way, forcing him to jump to safety.

The girl on the bridge shrieked, turned and tried to run as the planks beneath her feet shuddered and fell. She was still trying to climb it like a ladder when the tsunami of mud and water roared past.

Staggering back, all Kenshin could do was stare aghast as a force of nature stronger than anything he'd seen before smashed its way down the gorge. The bridge disappeared.

Shocked, Kenshin looked behind him, ready to offer sympathy to the merchant, but Tomahizo was already on the move. The path from the bridge led uphill to a herdsman's hut before tracing the edge of an escarpment. From the map, Kenshin knew that this was the last peak before the trail began to descend through a mountain pass leading to a town on the other side of the range.

The merchant scuttled quickly up the path without looking back.

The maelstrom's fury drew Kenshin's gaze hypnotically. He stood and waited as the muddy waters crashed at his feet, ready to jump back if more of the gorge edge fell away. A minute passed, two, and then the water receded as the worst of the flood spent itself downstream. The water level dropped dramatically in the space of seconds, leaving debris in its wake. The river at the bottom of the gorge no longer ran clean. The water was a dirt brown color and it flowed over and around logs and boulders that hadn't been there before.

Everything was bathed in a thin coating of brown muck. Everything except a bit of blue clinging to the remains of a rope bridge that had been pressed into the embankment opposite by an uprooted tree.

Kenshin wiped the rain from his eyes, his bangs plastering themselves to his forehead. The bit of blue moved. Chokichi was alive.

She'd wrapped an elbow around a support strut for the rope handrail and by some miracle she'd held onto it when the bridge slammed into the mud. Her lower body was obscured by tree branches, which pinned her to the cliff side. The tree was stuck half in and half out of a cave-like gash under the embankment, carved out by rushing water long ago.

Kenshin immediately looked for a way to get to the girl. Because of his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu training his sense of balance was better than most, and he was light in weight. The debris at the bottom of the gorge would hold him; keep him from the swirling river water. The hardest part would be finding hand and footholds down to the gorge floor.

"What are you doing? Come here!"

Tomahizo stood at the herder's shack, hands on his hips, an imperious tone in his voice.

"Or haven't you the sense to get out of the rain?" he jeered.

It was raining again, not a downpour, but steady drops hitting the ground as if the heavens themselves were intent on cleaning up the mess left in the gorge. Kenshin hadn't even noticed the new bout of precipitation.

Wordlessly, he pointed to the opposite bank where Chokichi's struggles to get free of the branches were clearly visible.

"Forget her," Tomahizo called roughly. "Your job is to protect me, not her."

Biting back a retort, Kenshin turned his back and moved to the edge of the gorge.

"Wait here," he ordered curtly, and dropped down to a large root protruding out of the mud. As he expected, it bent but held his weight and provided the first of many footholds he'd need.

The merchant cursed, then came the sound of a slamming door. He'd gone into the hut, not bothering to watch to learn the fate of his mistress. By the time Kenshin got to the bottom of the gorge, the smell of smoke wafted through the air. Tomahizo had started a fire in the hearth.

He was probably counting his money too, Kenshin thought sourly. Tomahizo certainly lived up to all the other stereotypes of the parasitical merchant.

Then he was at the gorge floor, with no more time to spare a thought for his charge. The water rushed by fast and dirty. Taking a breath, he jumped and gained the first boulder. He leapt again, downstream this time, to a smaller rock.

It rolled beneath his feet so he had to leap again, and again, his feet kissing the boulders and logs for mere seconds as he used momentum more than anything else to keep himself above the moving water. He gained the other side and began to climb.

The tree helped. It was lodged so tightly into the side of the gorge that it didn't move at all when Kenshin jumped from the mud to the trunk. Taking care to avoid the root system, he scrambled up it and wended his way through the latticework of branches. The tree must have been massive, judging by the length of its trunk, and Kenshin spared a moment of awe that water could have dislodged something so big and strong.

Chokichi was whimpering when he reached her. She gasped in shock when he touched her shoulder, and he cursed himself for not speaking sooner. One side of her face was flat against the dirt, her right arm crooked over the bridge strut lying against the embankment wall, her left crossed under her, hands twined together. She hadn't seen him coming.

"It's alright," he told her soothingly, using the same tone he would to a skittish horse.

"I'm here now. I'm going to get you out."

Straining, Chokichi raised her face away from the dirt and craned her neck to look at him. The side that had been pressed against the wall was brown with mud, while the side that was exposed to the air was clean, washed by the rain that continued to fall down. It would have been comical if not for the circumstances.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Kenshin asked distractedly, looking down from his perch on a tree branch, figuring out how to extract the girl from the branches pressing her into the wall.

"Why did you come back for me?" she whispered.

Kenshin felt his mouth drop open in shock. Did she really think herself so worthless that he wouldn't take the time to save her? Had her time with Tomahizo convinced her of that?

"Don't ask stupid questions," he said gruffly and dropped to a lower branch, removing his wakizashi from his obi. A shorter sword was more appropriate for what he had to do.

Realizing the rudeness of his words, he glanced back at Chokichi to see if she looked insulted or sad. Instead he saw her lips curved into a tiny smile as she leaned her face back against the dirt, content with his answer.

Sighing inwardly, her realized he would never understand women. Cutting, however…

It was difficult, slicing through some branches while holding on precariously to others. A short sword was not meant to be a pruning device. At last he sliced his way down to the final branch pressing her into the soft mud.

"Hold tight," he warned, and cut her free. The rope bridge creaked in her arms, but held.

Kenshin quickly went to her, covering her body with his own and wrapped an arm around her obi-covered waist. Beneath the fabric she was slight, skinny even.

"Let go of the bridge," he urged.

She didn't want to at first, her instincts were telling her to cling. He had to stand on the branch beneath and place his fingers atop hers, gently pulling at each one until they relaxed their deathgrip on each other and untwined so that she could pull her arm out from under the rope.

They ascended slowly, Kenshin finding the hand and footholds needed and urging her to use them once they climbed higher than the tree. At last, they gained the edge. The wooden bridge posts were still there, giving them a final handhold. Chokichi rolled over and sat, pulling her feet back from the edge and staring across the gorge to the hut where a wisp of smoke trailed out, rising up like a grey ghost against the green foliage clinging to the cliff above it.

She turned to Kenshin once he was settled next to her, and opened her mouth to speak.

The ground began to tremble beneath them. Chokichi's eyes went wide.

Instinctively, Kenshin grabbed her and rolled away from the edge, landing with his body over hers protectively as the earth once again roiled in the throes of a quake.

This quake was gentler and shorter than the last one. He'd over reacted.

Raising his head, he blushed as he realized the inappropriateness of his position. The last time he'd been this close to a woman, he'd been with Tomoe. The two situations were nothing alike. His wife had been all softness and curves; Chokichi was rigid with fear, her child-like body holding no allure. The only reaction he'd had to her was a man's instinctive need to protect the weak. He rolled off her, muttering an embarrassed apology.

Chokichi sat up slowly.

"When will it end?" she asked, a hopelessness in her eyes that he didn't know how to answer.

He shrugged slightly. Sometimes the world rocked. No one knew when or why. Then her eyes drifted past him to the hut opposite, and he realized her question wasn't about the earthquakes.

Not sure what to say, he rose to his feet and held out a hand to her. The rain was coming down harder now, pounding the ground at their feet. He helped her up and drew her under the trees by the trail. The Bakufu soldiers would be coming soon. To get back across the gorge he and they would have to travel up or down stream and find a place to cross it now that the bridge was gone. He couldn't get Chokichi across the gorge floor the way he'd come to rescue her. That way was too precarious. Even with his training and sense of balance, he'd almost ended up in the river several times.

Then the point became moot.

They were huddled under the trees, listening to the rain getting softer. One moment the hut with its welcoming smell of smoke was there, and the next it was gone.

With barely a rumble, the cliff above shifted, and came down, tons of rock and earth slipping, subsiding, and covering the hut. It obscured the entire hill, covering it in fresh wet earth and spilling down into the gorge below with a thump that jarred all the way to the embankment opposite.

Kenshin and Chokichi stood frozen for a moment, unable to believe what they'd seen. Then the girl gasped and sank to the ground.

Kenshin remained upright by force of will, staring at the rockslide that had ended his mission. There was no way Tomahizo had survived that. He was broken and smashed like the hut under tons of rubble.

He'd failed.

For the first time since Katsura gave him an assignment, Kenshin had failed.

To Be Continued.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE: EPILOGUE

Chokichi was quiet on the trip back down the trail. At one point they had to hide behind some rocks as the Bakufu soldiers trooped past. She stayed obediently hidden while Kenshin waited for the soldiers to make it to the gorge, realize what had happened, then come back.

"I tell you, he's dead. He and the girl both," came a voice from behind the rock.

A clattering sound and an oath signaled that another soldier had stumbled on the rocky steps.

"You don't know that for sure," another voice suggested dispiritedly.

"We smelled smoke. In the rain," an angry voice clipped out. "You know of any other place around here aside from that hut that has a hearth? You think someone could've sustained a campfire in a downpour? They were in the hut, the rockslide buried them, end of story."

"Stop arguing," the next voice was tired, but had an aura of command to it. "We don't even know if the horses we were following belonged to our prey. Let's just get back, collect the horses and report."

"What do you bet he 'forgets' to tell the commander about the two horses he found wandering around? He'll get a good price for those at the next market day."

A few more grumbling retorts followed, then the sounds of their passage faded and Kenshin led the girl quietly down the rest of the way.

Two horses. The soldiers only mentioned two. That meant one was left. It took Kenshin half the night, but he found the horse. It was the chestnut with the white markings on its hind legs, the sturdiest and savviest of the three.

Kenshin pulled a saddle and bridle out from under the bush where he'd hidden them, stuck Chokichi on its back, and led the horse down the mountain in the dark. It was dangerous, but there were stars once the rain stopped and the storm passed.

At dawn he swung up behind her. She barely seemed to notice him, silent and withdrawn as she was. It was no wonder. She'd witnessed two earthquakes, a rockslide, and seen her lover disappear right in front of her.

When she slumped against him, he was relieved that she'd at last taken refuge in sleep. She slept for a while, then woke, yawning.

"Where are we?"

"On the road back to Nagasaki," Kenshin answered. He'd skirted the onsen town and managed to avoid the soldiers as well. Now he was retracing his steps back to Kamui's safehouse to return the horse.

Chokichi glanced around, focusing on a mountain up ahead.

"That's Aso," she said excitedly, pointing a finger and glancing back at him.

Doing a mental check of the map still in his sleeve, Kenshin nodded.

"My village is just over there," she pointing again, this time to the left of the peak.

"Your village?"

"Umm hmm. There was a drought. My parents sold me to a procurer who sent me to Kyoto to become a geisha. That's how I ended up with Tomahizo. He'd ask for me a lot. Then he bought my contract and took me with him. He was always asking about my home. He wanted to retire to an onsen someday."

She broke off and lapsed into silence again. Kenshin wondered if she was missing Tomahizo. She seemed more real somehow, now that she was away from the merchant who'd bought her. It was as though he'd stifled some essential part of her. He supposed it was because geisha were taught to behave a certain way, to present a pleasing manner and face to the world. Now it was as though the rain had washed away Chokichi's mask, allowing her true self to show through.

"Great samurai, may I ask a favor?"

With a start, Kenshin realized he'd never told her his name. Once Tomahizo found out Katsura sent Kenshin, he hadn't bothered to ask his name, and Kenshin hadn't offered it.

"Of course."

"Could you…drop me off at my village? If it's not too much trouble?"

She sounded hesitant, and Kenshin wondered why she'd want to go back to a village and a family who'd callously sold her to a procurer to ensure their own survival. He knew it happened a lot, but that didn't make it right.

"Are you sure you want to go back?"

"Yes," she said decisively.

Kenshin turned the horse off the road and onto a country track leading to the left of Mount Aso. When they got to the outskirts of the village it was late afternoon. He could see the wood and sod roofs of several homes clustered together, lush fields like green blankets surrounding them.

"This is close enough," Chokichi said, and slid off the horse.

She staggered back a little on landing, the ubiquitous under kimono clutching at her feet again, but regained her balance quickly.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Kenshin offered.

She shook her head. "I'll be alright."

He stared down at her. Chokichi looked back and smiled. It was the first genuine smile he'd seen from her. With Tomahizo she was always simpering and giggling behind her hand.

"What will you do?" he asked softly.

Kenshin found himself oddly reluctant to leave the girl. He was in no hurry to return to Katsura to report his failure, and even though Chokichi wasn't included in his orders, he felt responsible for her.

Chokichi's smile grew broader. "There was a boy in the village that I liked. He was a younger son, so he may not be married yet. I'm going to find him and marry him," she said with quiet confidence.

Tapping the crane and wisteria ornament on her obi with her fingers, she continued.

"And even if he is married, I can sell this, use it for my dowry and marry whoever I want. I'm free now."

"Ah," Kenshin breathed, at a loss.

The girl stepped forward and touched the horse's shoulder, peering up at him.

"Do you think it's awful, to be glad that I'm free?"

An image of Tomahizo, standing at the hut, demanding that Kenshin abandon Chokichi and see to him, came to Kenshin's mind.

"No, no I don't think it's awful at all," he told her decisively.

She smiled again, and motioned for him to lean down.

"The Bakufu ordered two warships from the French. They're to be wood hulled but armor plated, with a steam screw propulsion system. For artillery they will carry eighteen sixty-eight pounder guns, four thirty-two pounder guns, and are capable of speeds up to fourteen knots. Did you get all that?"

Dazed, Kenshin nodded. This was the information the merchant heard from his friend in the department of the navy, the specifications of the plans he'd seen. This was what Katsura was looking for, knowledge of what they'd be up against in the coming war with the Bakufu.

"How…?" he asked.

"No one notices a geisha has ears too," she said with an apologetic shrug.

Using one hand to grab the back of her kimono skirt and pull the clinging fabric out of the way, she stepped away from the horse.

"Farewell, Great Samurai."

With that she turned and left, kimono skirts in hand, striding confidently over the grassy earth. Already she was walking more like a country girl and less like the simpering doll she'd pretended to be.

o-o-o

When Kenshin returned, Katsura wasn't happy that Tomahizo hadn't made it, but the information gleaned from Chokichi more than made up for it. The brief fierce look of joy on his commander's face surprised him, and Katsura's "Thank you, Himura," when he'd expected recrimination left him surprised and unsettled.

He wandered out to the courtyard to watch the men train after Katsura dismissed him. Lifting his eyes, he saw a sparrow hopping from branch to branch of the thin maple growing by the corner of the building.

The sparrow stopped and peered down at him, tilting its head before taking off, flitting into the sun.

Kenshin lifted his hand to his forehead, shadowing his eyes and tracking the bird until it was lost to sight. Chokichi would be fine. Like the sparrow, she was delicately built, yet sparrows survived the winter storms, just as she had.

Perhaps after the war was over, he'd return to Kyushu to check up on her, make sure she was happily married to her farm boy and living the life she'd chosen.

Turning away from the clash of swords and the men engaged in combat training, he went back inside the inn to await his next assignment.

THE END

**A/N: That's the end. I wanted to write a story where Kenshin didn't automatically succeed in his task, to explore what could happen if things didn't go as planned. By ignoring Tomahizo and going to save Chokichi, Kenshin took himself out of harm's way, thus saving his own life. In a sense he disobeyed his instructions to keep Tomahizo safe, yet it was the right thing to do and Katsura ended up with the information he craved anyhow.**

**Please review and let me know what you think about the ending – Like it? Hate it? Too predictable? Too cheesy? Leave a review and let me know.**


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